he question of whether or not Silicon Valley is still the best place to scale up your startup shows no signs of abating. Every city now seems to have a silicon something or other – whether it be London’s Silicon Roundabout, Berlin’s Silicon Allee or the Silicon Slopes of Salt Lake City.

My own experience with Zendesk, however, leaves me convinced that, at present at least, the original Silicon Valley remains the best place for budding tech startups looking to take their business to the next level.

There are many reasons for this. Some are economic – the EU is a smaller marketplace than the US. In fact, it isn’t a single market but a collection of many smaller markets, each with its own language and customs. This can make business difficult.

Beyond economics, however, there are deeply rooted cultural issues. Take Denmark’s famous law of Jante – an aversion to seeking or celebrating individual success. This undermines the imperative to think big and it’s a completely different mythology to that in the US. The American dream remains an irresistible draw for would-be entrepreneurs.

That said, things are changing in Europe. Take this recent study from the LSE, for example, which shows that despite popular perception some of the differences between the US and the EU are not as pronounced as we might assume. European startups raised more than $2.8bn in the last quarter of 2014 and are just as likely as their American counterparts to reach the hallowed ground of the Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Despite all this, there are still differences. According to Fortune Magazine, in 2013 venture capitalists invested $33bn in US companies – more than four times the amount invested in the entire European Union. The gap is even wider in the tech industry. Venture capital invested in US tech reached $8.67bn in 2013 compared with just $1.44bn in Europe.

So, what can Europe do about this?

There is still a perception of Europe as being overly bureaucratic, a perception that Europe sometimes reinforces. Take the EU’s tech-hub in San Francisco, catchily named the European Institute of Innovation and Technology Information and Communication Technology Labs (EIT ICT labs to friends).

Joking aside, it is this image that helps fuel opinions such as those of Peter Thiel, who recently commented that European regulations represent a “cure worse than the disease”.

Another thing holding Europe back is the persistent idea that failure is something to be ashamed of. This flies in the face of Silicon Valley’s fail fast, fail often mantra. Speaking from experience, failure has been a necessary and useful step on the road to success. For Americans, failure is a rite of passage.

Europe is taking steps in the right direction. In my home country of Denmark, for example, the likes of Podio are achieving great success along with a wealth of great startups, including Tradeshift, Unity and many more.

A bigger question for Europe, however, is: do you need to compete with Silicon Valley? Ultimately Europe and the US are very different markets with very different needs. There is no one size fits all when it comes to startup success. Take SongKick – a great live music startup based in London. London is the world’s biggest live music hub, so why would they want to move?

Ultimately Europe needs to recognise its own strengths and its own uniqueness. Silicon Valley and Europe face many challenges in breaking the vast new markets of China and other emerging economies. The question for everyone is not who’s the best, but how can we best meet these challenges?

The Internet is set for another revolution, much like the smartphone explosion of the 2000s. This revolution, the “Internet of Things” (IoT), will connect physical devices, such as air conditioners, appliances and lights to the Internet.

The IoT is generating particularly widespread interest due to its projected growth from $33 billion in 2013 to $71 billion in 2018. Like technology revolutions of the past, much of the market will be captured by new companies with innovative products.We see connected-living startups pop up almost daily, but there are a few things that truly set successful IoT startups apart. So, how can you position your business for IoT success? Here are our top five tips:

1. Ensure your device tells a “story.”Your product needs to tell a clear story that can both stand alone and also work well with other services. Consumers need to understand what specific need this product will serve, in their language.

The “connected lifestyle” is really a grouping of these individual stories -- a novel -- that work better together. However, average consumers rarely walk into Best Buy intending to purchase a full suite of connected products all at once. Instead, they focus on one need at a time.

The best way to handle this? Make sure that your product’s initial value proposition is crystal clear.

The Zen thermostat is a good example. Its initial use case was clear from the beginning: a simple thermostat that connects to the Internet. This clear value proposition coupled with the fact that setup was easy and the product already had an established team behind it (fact: Indiegogo campaigns run by two or more people raise 94 percent more money than campaigns by single individuals), made it a desirable and well-designed campaign from the gate -- attracting both consumers and press.

2. Plan your compatibility roadmap from day one.Customers don’t want to invest in dead-end technology. They may not even fully understand the concept of the IoT when they purchase a connected device, but consumers have begun learning the value of combining several IoT devices together to increase their overall usefulness.

What many don’t know, though, is that multiple standards exist and that not all devices speak the same “language.” Thus, it’s critical that your product plays nicely with other devices and services.

3. Mentorship is even more important than you think.Every connected product requires expertise in many different domains: hardware layout, standards interoperability, industrial design, distribution strategy and many more. Leveraging industry mentors will help you make the best product possible.

Mentorships can come in many forms: guidance through a crowdsourcing campaign, assistance with radio frequency design, navigation through complex certifications, and advice on distribution channel selection. Look to companies such as platform providers, chip manufacturers and business partners for this mentorship.

For example, you should know the difference between Zigbee and Z-Wave, and what each standard can offer in terms of distribution channels and strategic partnerships. Rather than relying solely on technical issues, startups should think through these types of implications to guide their connectivity decision. Mentors can help you navigate these multi-faceted issues.

4. Have a plan for handling privacy, security and data from the beginning.Life is made better by sharing information, but as we share more and more data, you need to know how you’re going to protect it. Even technology goliaths have made privacy missteps, causing reduced consumer confidence and lower sales volumes.

This is certainly another area where mentorship can lend a hand. Partners can also accelerate your time to market by providing robust, safe, proven infrastructures that your devices can leverage.

5. Assume the person setting up your product knows little about technology.The average consumer will not take the time to learn about technology in order to use a new device. Customers purchase IoT devices to make their lives easier, not more complex, so it’s important to ensure you are catering to novices, not early adopters. One of the most critical things to simplify and streamline: the set up of your connected device.

While it is most important to cater to the average consumer, technology enthusiasts are often early adopters. Since they fuel the early phases of your growth, it is also important to provide them with access to advanced configuration, customization and other features. Just don’t let those tech-focused features take center stage.

The future awaits.Historically, upstart companies have had huge opportunities during similar technological upheavals such as the industrial revolution, the introduction of the Internet and the propagation of smartphones.

Consider the histories of John Deere, Oracle and Google. All of these companies grew exponentially due to technological shifts like the one we’re seeing with the Internet of Things. Give your company the best opportunity to take advantage of this huge market expansion by keeping these tips in mind.

You might not realize it, but some of the best new tools available for business owners today are being made by startups. Here are 23 tools and apps I love and use that could make your business better:

1. CoscheduleThis is a lightweight Wordpress plugin that provides a one-stop solution for managing editorial calendars for blogs or websites that regularly publish content. It also automates social-media promotion when posts are published. Coschedule currently costs $10/month per website.

2. OptimizelyThis service bills itself as “A/B testing you’ll actually use” and focuses on making testing as easy as possible. It allows you to track what you are actually interested in (as opposed to tracking information and data that you’re not going to use) and also allows you to set deadlines and run reports for specific timelines.

3. UserTestingUserTesting records actual users as they view your app, website or other digital product. It records video of the user’s screen, and they are given tasks to complete on the platform being tested. They can create annotations for notes and also verbally give their feedback as they are working their way through the experience.

It offers a single video for $50, or pro plans that are $225/month for small businesses and $1,250 for enterprise businesses. The pro plans offer much more robust feedback and reports based on the user test findings.

4. IntercomThis tool allows you to not only see your users’ behavior when they are using your online tools or apps, but it also helps you interact with them through popups while they are on specific pages or using specific features. This type of user interaction can help further your product development and customer service. Intercom ranges in monthly pricing packages from free to $99, depending on how many features you need.

5. SlackSlack is an easy-to-use searchable-team communication platform that integrates with existing software that your team is probably already using, such as Dropbox, Google Drive and MailChimp. Slack currently ranges in price from free to $12.50 per user, depending on which features are needed. Pricing is based on an annual payment.

6. FuzeFuze is a video and conference-call service that also allows users to type and send files during calls, record calls for later purposes and send participants calendar invitations directly from the app. It can be used via the web, its downloadable program (which is required for video calls), mobile app or via a conference-call number. The top-level plan also allows the facilitation of webinars. Its plans range from free (up to three call participants) to $40 per month.

7. MailboxMailbox was created to optimize the email experience on mobile. You can swipe new emails to either trash or archive them, and can also schedule emails to reappear in your inbox at a specific period of time.Mailbox is currently free and available for iPhone, iPad, Android and a beta version for Mac OSX.

8. MyndThis app, currently only available for iOS, is a helpful optimized calendar that works with your existing calendar information (as well as the Internet) to make your life easier. For instance, it alerts you when you need to leave to make a meeting on time and automatically inputs conference-call codes to make dialing in easier. It has in-app purchases, but is free to download.

9. ZenPayroll

ZenPayroll aims to make employee payroll easy. It allows you to integrate with existing systems (such as human-resources platforms, invoicing platforms or insurance-plan management tools) to make employee management simpler.

10. XeroXero provides online accounting and invoicing services for small businesses and accountants or bookkeepers. It integrates add-on services such as popular payment, customer-relationship management and business tools such as PayPal and Salesforce. In addition, it integrates with your online banking, so you can automatically sync banking transactions. Pricing plans ranges from $20 to 40 per month.

11. HelpScoutThis service is an online help desk that also integrates with your email, documents and other apps to make customer service as easy as possible. You can also use one user account to manage the help desk for multiple brands or domains, making it ideal for outsourced support desks or companies that own more than one product. It currently costs $15 per user per month.

12. IconFinderThis unique service is a tiny component of web design, yet crucial to the user experience. IconFinder helps you find the perfect icons for your apps, promotions or websites. You can either pay a per-icon rate or a monthly membership fee for its premium offerings, which are higher quality. There are also some free icons as well, depending on what you are searching for.

13. DripDrip describes itself as “marketing automation that doesn’t suck.” It offers marketing, trial and customer-email automation that makes campaigns easier. Once you choose an opt-in form, it walks through the automation set-up process, all on a lightweight platform. Plans range from $49 to more than $149 per month, depending on email volume, size of email list and desired features.

14. CanvaCanva makes great graphic design within anyone’s grasp. It has hundreds of pre-designed layouts, elements, fonts and image styles that make it possible to design everything from a great Twitter header to a flyer for your business. It offers free design elements, but also allows you to buy premium elements piecemeal, for about $1 each (at the moment). It also keeps track of all your designs in your account, so you can re-edit or re-download them as needed.

15. ZapierThis service is a lot like If This, Then That (IFTTT), but for businesses. You can connect your well-known apps you are already using to automate your work process. For instance, every time you are assigned a new task in your company’s project-management platform, it will automatically create a calendar alert to reminder you to finish it. The pricing plans for Zapier run from free to $150 per month, based on the number of “zaps” (such as automated tasks) that are needed to run.

16. BuzzsumoBuzzsumo is a content analysis and discovery tool to help you find out what type of content does best for a specific topic or industry. It also helps you identify influential online users that could help you promote and share your content. You can also research specific domains to see their social backlinks and which pieces of content are the most popular. Buzzsumo has a free account for viewing information, but the paid options (ranging from $99 to more than $499) allow you to export reports and alerts.

Related: 10 Affordable Tools to Help Online Entrepreneurs Succeed

17. When I WorkThis tool (disclosure: I'm the vice president of marketing at the company) aims to makes scheduling hourly employees as easy as possible. You can create and send out work schedules for the next week just as easily on a mobile device as you can from your computer. Managers can text employees when their new schedule is out, and they can also request time off from the When I Work app on their phone. Plans range from $9 to $49.

18. BambooHRBambooHR is focused on turning human resources back into what it is supposed to be: interacting with employees, not tracking data in spreadsheets. Its interface is focused on making data (such as time off, benefits and personal information) about employees easy to search and accessible by both the HR team and the employees themselves. Its pricing structure is based on the number of employees and ranges from $69 a month to $2,999 a month for 1,500 employees (beyond that requires a custom quote).

19. HelloSignThis is an edocument signing service that lets all parties sign a document digitally, while still being legally binding. In addition to an online platform to upload and send out documents, it also integrates with Google so you can upload documents that need to be signed right from Gmail. Its free plan allows for the signing of up to three documents per month, and $13 per month (when paid annually) for unlimited document signings, but one template. The $40 monthly plan allows for five templates and unlimited signatures.

20. BoomerangThis service allows you to “boomerang” your email to remind yourself to follow up with it at a later date. It will bring the email thread back to your inbox, making it great for following up with clients, sales contacts and other colleagues if they don’t respond. It has a free account that offers 10 boomerangs per month and also offer higher-level options from $4.99 to $49.99 monthly.

21. CrashPlanThe CrashPlan from Code42 automatically backs up your computer’s files online with unlimited cloud storage (which is its main draw). The personal version starts at $4 per month and the family plan starts at $9. There are also custom quotes available for business backup plans.

22. SqwiggleSqwiggle is a collaboration tool that is perfect for teams that are remote or have telecommuting members. Along with video and text chat, it also periodically takes photos of team members as they work (so everyone feels more connected), allows for easy file sharing and also utilizes minimal bandwidth (something Google Hangouts and Skype occasionally have issues with, according to some users). It offers a free plan, and also has two other plans that are $9 and $25 per user, per month.

23. GoodDataThis is a business intelligence-gathering tool that allows you to gather data from any source, as well as combine, analyze, visualize and store it. It allows you to combine data and information from other tools, such as Yammer and Salesforce. It doesn’t offer pricing options on its website.

Starting and growing a business is tough work. But even the most successful entrepreneurs and professionals need to cut loose and have some fun every now and then. This belief isn’t lost on many of the tech startups that are exhibiting here at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Here are three new products that aim to get people doing something other than the usual grind.

1. Laser tag turned up a notch.Startup LyteShot's goal is to create live-action gaming that’s more practical than laser tag and more interactive than firing off Nerf guns at each other. It’s essentially a simple system of wireless toy guns and sensors that players wear: You shoot at someone on the opposite team, for instance, and the sensors detect the infrared “shot.” Information is then sent to an app via Bluetooth that registers and tracks the damage caused by each shot.Kind of awesome, right? The folks at LyteShot hope hobbyists and others will use their open platform to develop their own games and equipment.

2. Why walk when you can IO Hawk?Remember the Segway? Remember how geeky people looked riding them? One startup has taken the fun and practical features of the Segway and made something way more socially acceptable.

Meet the IO Hawk. It’s sort of like a motorized skateboard, except you stand with your feet side-by-side instead of one in front of the other. Just step on and lean slightly forward or backward to get it moving. You will probably require a few minutes of practice to get your balance just right.The IO Hawk can be used in an office or even to get around town. It weighs a little more than 20 pounds, so it’s not super lightweight (did you see those chunky tires?) but also not unmanageably heavy.They’re also not inexpensive. There are three versions -- red, white and black -- and each will run you $1,800.

For a closer look, check out the demo by our friends at CNET.<iframe width="598" height="343" src="http://techkonverse.thewebsiteweavers.com/https://www.youtube.com/embed/wLMo2XFuX5A" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

3. The coolest 'paper' airplane you’ve ever seen.If only the traditional paper airplane that we all love could be more durable and a lot more high-tech. Bret Gould and serial inventor Christopher Hawker -- the entrepreneur whose company, Trident Design, was behind the industrial design of The Coolest cooler, which went on to become the most-funded Kickstarter campaign -- has made that dream an awesomely fun reality.

Here’s the Carbon Flyer, a "paper" airplane made of carbon fiber, so it’s super durable, and equipped with dual built-in propellers.

It’s controlled via an app on your smartphone and can fly up to 80 yards before losing its Bluetooth connection. Gould told me that the team is already working on a 2.0 version that’s powered by peer-to-peer communication, which should significantly increase the distance the Flyer can fly without losing communication with your phone.

There are a few days left on the Carbon Flyer Indiegogo campaign. It’s already raised more than $260,000, well above its $50,000 goal. It’s no wonder -- it’s very cool.

Education continues to play an important role in any country’s overall growth. The education market has become more challenging due to the rapid growth and evolution in the modes of imparting education; schools, colleges, private tuition, online education courses, distance education, test preparations, professional trainings etc.The most concerning factor for universities or educational institutions across the world is student dropout rate, especially in developed countries. Here are some facts based on a research about the student drop out patterns in large economies.Challenges

Multiple modes of education

Rapidly changing education trends

Targeting the right population is difficult

Selecting the right students and retaining them (curbing the drop-out rate)

Planning and budgeting for sustainable expansion

Instructor and Curriculum development

Consequences

Lose business gradually due to unawareness about the market and the trend

High drop-out rate

Higher debt pressure on dropouts

Increasing loan defaults

Failure of the education system

Universities lose revenues

How can Analytics help?

Analytics can play a vital role in the education industry by helping universities and institutes make data oriented informed decisions.

Tracking students’ performance across cohort, departments and courses and creating clusters based on different characteristics enables targeted strategies for specific segments of students. such as Students pursuing a particular course and performing exceptionally well or average or below average students finding the course very tough. For the below average cluster, the university administration can initiate structures intervention and provide them some special training to ensure retention and improved performance.

Analyzing the attendance data and focusing on students who missing the assigned course credit can help identify likely dropouts. Specific actions or retention programs for such students can have a significant impact on dropout rates.

Analyzing the trend

Analyze the curriculum and instructor development effectively on a regular basis to keep up with latest trends

Predictive analytics can help predict the future based on the past. It involves digging into historical data, finding key patterns and predicting future trends on the basis of those patterns. Predictive analytics involves various techniques viz. statistics, modelling, machine learning and data mining.

Data mining can help understand the reasons behind a student’s decision to leave the course midway. E.g. Insufficient or no financial-aid, high cost of education, poor grades, choice of subjects, distance from home, good job opportunity or better choice of college etc.

If you didn’t know how easy it was for hackers to grab information off of your smartphone before, you should now.

The Intercept reported earlier this week that the National Security Agency (NSA) and the British equivalent spy agency GCHQ had allegedly hacked into and stole information from millions of SIM cards produced by the Dutch company Gemalto. This may have given both agencies access to phone communications around the world and should serve as a warning to all that we need to protect our smartphones.

The good news is that the technology already exists to protect your text and phone messaging data. “Encrypted text messaging and phone systems are so easy to protect that we all have an obligation to secure ourselves,” American Civil Liberties Union senior policy analyst Chirs Soghoian told TechCrunch over the phone.

Soghoian believes it would be irresponsible to tell people the government might be hacking into their private information and then not give them the tools to protect themselves. So he hopped on the phone with me to go through some of the free tools we already have at our fingertips to protect our private information.

Apple doesn’t market iMessage or FaceTime this way, but according to Soghoian, both are very secure means of sending information. “FaceTime is portrayed as a tool to talk to your kids at night before they go to bed, but it’s actually pretty secure for audio and video use,” he says. The other Apple product Soghoian recommends is iMessage. “Apple encrypts the iPhone to iPhone messaging to the point where it can’t un-encrypt the data. So even if the government wanted that information and demanded it from Apple, Apple doesn’t have it,” he says.

Apple supported Soghoian’s recommendations and confirmed with TechCrunch that it has built-in privacy and security measures on both FaceTime and iMessage, but also iCloud data.

Soghoian recommended WhatsApp as an alternative secure texting platform for those with Android phones, but said the same security measures did not exist on WhatsApp for iPhones (we have reached out to but not confirmed this with WhatsApp). “[WhatsApp] isn’t perfect, but it’s about 90 percent there,” he says.

The senior policy analyst wasn’t very positive on most of the other technology tools out there, but Signal was an app that stood out for him. This is an open-source, secure text messaging system that was developed on tax payer dollars and built on the Open Whisper Systems, the same system that was used for the Android app technology behind WhatsApp.

Signal, also known as TextSecure on Android, is a free app and one of the few that works across platforms. It is also, in Soghoian’s opinion, easy to navigate and the most secure. When Signal is used with an app called RedPhone it can also encrypt your phone calls from end-to-end. RedPhone works the same way with TextSecure.But even with greater encryption, nothing is 100 percent secure. “If someone wants to target you, be it the NSA or your boyfriend they can hack into your device,” Soghoian says.

The idea isn’t to rely on one app to encrypt all data and call it good, but to know the risks, not put things on any device you don’t want getting out somehow, and to make it a lot harder for hackers to get your information. For Soghoian, the point is to make it too difficult for the government to hack into the wide swath of readily available information of innocent civilians and instead focus its energy on the bad guys.

“These tools aren’t bullet proof but they are a million times more secure than what the phone company offers,” Soghoian says.

A recent article in TechCrunch characterized nascent upstarts in the restaurant industry as wide-eyed idealists with little reality of the harsh, high-touch operating environment in which they operate. Having worked in the tech, food and health worlds for most of my career, I believe the article misrepresented the significant progress being made across the industry. On almost every front within hospitality — be it point of sale, loyalty, delivery or sourcing — change is in the air.

Point of Sale Systems Are Shifting Rapidly

For all the talk of the Aloha and MICROS point of sale (POS) systems dominanting in restaurants, a bevy of newcomers have been making inroads. Square, with its slick reader and now retail POS terminal, carries the most gravitas among the mobile POS companies for good reason: it inks deals with large retailers: Starbucks in 2012, then Whole Foods, Uniqlo and Godiva in 2014. Granted, none of these establishments switched over an entire store to Square, but these relationships suggest large retailers will embrace new technology.

Square isn’t alone in this space, either. Longtime ecommerce site Shopify launched its own POS system in 2013, bridging together digital and in-store selling in ways old-line providers can’t match. Even venerable POS provider NCR has dipped its toes into the market. Adil Consulting, a merchant POS consultancy, found 52% of small merchants now use a mobile POS for the majority of their payment processing, a huge change from even a couple of years prior.

Mobile POS upstarts are also eyeing the market leaders with more sophisticated products. POS startup Revel (which recently raised a $100 million Series C round) and ShopKeep aim at the heart of Aloha and MICROS by combining deep business analytics with mobile-based front-of-the-house systems. Alex Konrad of Forbes reported Revel’s growth rate at 250 percent year-over-year in February 2014.

If you want a historical parallel for the mobile POS market, consider the arrival of Japanese cars into America back in the 1970s. Toyota and Honda targeted the low end of the market, but within a generation, they delivered Lexus and Acura into the U.S. market, upending the staid American luxury brands like Cadillac and Lincoln. Substitute MICROS and Aloha for Cadillac and Lincoln and you can get an idea of what’s coming for the biggest POS names.

Mobile Payments Are Coming to Restaurants

For high-end retail, which acts as a harbinger of things to come, mobile payments have already arrived. Starbucks, an early mover in this space, reported 14 percent of its U.S. transactions were completed using its mobile app in 2014. But it’s not just the big players; even small merchants that represent the long tail of the industry are adopting new technology.

I spoke at length with Andrew Cove, co-founder of the Cover for this article. Long considered one of those ‘Why hasn’t anyone done this already?’ mobile opportunities, Cover brings mobile payments and check splitting into the high-end restaurant market. Built around creating a seamless payment transaction for users — think Uber, Cove said — Cover also delivers flat-fee transactions and 24-hour payment disbursement to restaurants. Cove said the product has already reached over 150 restaurants in NYC, San Francisco and Salt Lake City.

And let’s not forget what Apple Pay may do in this area. Payment industry guru Mike Dudas calculated almost 1 percent of Whole Foods transactions are happening with Apple Pay. Sure, that’s a tiny part of the retailer’s overall sales, but, if true, it represents phenomenal growth of a new technology no one had even heard of six months ago.

A Food Service Sourcing Revolution in the Making

Long dominated by Sysco and US Food, even the purveyor system — with its 10 mile wide moat to market entry — is at the dawn of a new age. Another innovative startup, Sourcery, allows chefs to manage disparate food suppliers from a central dashboard, streamlining payments and invoicing.

Ashwin Mudaliar, head of business development at Sourcery, spoke to me about Sourcery’s operations. A molecular biologist with a passion for food system reform, Mudaliar describes Sourcery as a commerce platform for the modern commercial kitchen. Restaurants bring their purveyor network into Sourcery’s orbit and they weave their technology across each restaurant’s web of suppliers.

The result of reducing friction for food sourcing may ripple through the supply chain, a long-term goal highlighted by Mudaliar. It encourages more restaurants to source widely, pulling restaurants away from the broadliner model embodied by Sysco. While it’s very early, technology like Sourcery has the potential to increase the diversity of local food options available at every restaurant.

Delivery and the Broader Food Industry VC Presence

GrubHub and Seamless dominate the restaurant delivery market, but that doesn’t mean innovation is out of reach here, either. Instacart, the grocery delivery service launched only back in 2012, is reportedly raising $100 million at a heady $2 billion valuation. Other upstarts like the more local-flavored grocery delivery services (Good Eggs on the West Coast and Relay Foods in the Mid-Atlantic) raised $21 million and $8.25 million in their last funding rounds, respectively.

There’s also a host of tangentially related food-tech startups that align spiritually with the restaurant industry and the broader food movement. VC funding in the food vertical has been on a steadily increasing trajectory for at least the last five years, touching all corners of the industry.

The DC-based organic salad chain SweetGreen raised $22 million in 2014 to promote expansion. West coast competitor Lyfe Kitchen boosted its reserves by at least $21 million in 2014, according to an SEC filing. Revolution Foods, the firm trying to remake school lunches, raised $30 million in 2014. And Hampton Creek, the food company replacing animal products with unique plant-based substitutes, managed to get its Just Mayo product into over 20,000 stores in just the last 12 months, according to Danielle Gould’s FoodTechConnect.

Solutions to the uniquely complex problems facing the restaurant and food industries will require still more innovation than what has been discussed here. Discovery, nutrition information, loyalty, distribution and food waste represent just a few of the frontiers that await intrepid entrepreneurs. But no matter what dimension of this industry you look at, it’s hard not to see the seeds of change blowing in this venture capital-fueled wind.

Aside from bringing a shiny new interface, Cortana to desktop and uniform design standards across devices, Windows 10 promises to making gaming a lot better. While we're sceptical of the latter, Microsoft has begun enhancing the social aspects of gaming in preparation of cross-platform, multiplayer gaming coming to Windows 10 and Xbox One.

The Xbox One website has been enhanced with more ways to find friends and see what they're up to. According to Xbox's Director of Programming, Larry "Major Nelson" Hyrb, you can now find and make more friends with the addition of a "Suggested Friends" section. Also, after logging in to the website, you can now see your activity feed, laden with your friend's exploits, as the default home page for your Xbox Live account.

Achievement unlocks, videos, and new friendship activity make an appearance on the activity feed. Furthermore, there's another section titled as "people to watch". This shows popular video makers and live-streamers including Major Nelson.

Though it's a far cry from replacing Twitter, Facebook, or whatever it is you use to interact with like-minded souls across the Internet, it's a signal of intent from Microsoft to augment the social layer of its Xbox and Windows 10 gaming value proposition. Whether it's something that the Xbox One's core audience is open to however, is another thing altogether.

Are you onboard with this latest change from Microsoft? Or does this make the Xbox One and Windows 10 seem more like Facebook instead of a gaming platform? Let us know in the comments.

With new smartphones launching each week and prices falling due to competition, the market landscape has shifted yet again. It's time to take a fresh look at all the smartphones available in India today and pick the best ones at each budget level. Whether you're picking up your first entry-level device or upgrading to a top-specced flagship, we're here to take the confusion out of sorting through the hundreds of models available. We have the latest pricing information and have come up with a definitive guide to help you get the best possible value for money today.

MethodologyWe've divided the market into a number of price bands, based on current trends and the amount a buyer can usually stretch his or her budget by after having identified a reasonable model. Generally, the phones in each price band will be comparable in terms of features and capabilities. We've also considered current street prices, as opposed to MRPs, since these prices do drop over the course of a device's life, and what really matters is the price right now.

The cheapest smartphones that are still usable sell for between Rs. 5,000 and Rs. 10,000. From Rs. 10,000 up to Rs. 15,000 you can buy a modern smartphone with all the important features in place, that offers a pretty good user experience.

Between Rs. 15,000 and Rs. 30,000, we are firmly in mid-range territory. However, due to the massive difference between devices at either end of this band, we've subdivided it even further. Budget-friendly options now include models with quad-core processors and reasonably good cameras, and Indian and Chinese brands muscling in on the territory formerly dominated by brands like Samsung and Sony. You also have a wider range of platform options. A number of smartphones that were top end just a year ago - and are still perfectly serviceable - make up the higher end of this band.

Above Rs. 30,000, we have a variety of models including flagship-level phones that are due to be replaced in a few months' time. These still represent tremendous value for money, since they have been on the market for less than a year. Flagship devices and those with extraordinary high-end features sell for between Rs. 40,000 and Rs. 65,000. In this range, you'll find more recently launched models. The upper reaches of this category are made up of variants with more storage capacity. Of course, if money is no object, there are phones even more luxurious that you can splurge on. Some of these have designer touches, or are built out of exotic materials, driving prices higher and higher.

Here are our top picks in each category:

Under Rs. 10,000This has probably been the most hotly contested market segment over the past year. Till recently, Chinese upstart Xiaomi had a solid grip on this territory thanks to its Redmi 1S (Review | Pictures) and Redmi Note (Review | Pictures), two well-built products with excellent features compared to everyone else. Recently though, Micromax's Yu Yureka (Review | Pictures) has managed to steal the spotlight.This phone undercuts the Redmi Note 4G by Rs. 1,000 and still delivers class-leading features. The primary problem with it is restricted availability, thanks to the recent flash sales trend. In case you can't get your hands on a Yureka, or if you would prefer a smaller screen, the Redmi 1S is a worthy alternative. Both devices are only available through flash sales, and if that proves to be too frustrating, you can opt for the Asus ZenFone 5 (Review | Pictures), which received a price drop very recently.

Rs. 10,000 - 15,000The original Motorola Moto G was our favourite in this segment a few months ago, and its own replacement, the Moto G Gen 2 (Review | Pictures) occupies that spot now. It's an improvement over its predecessor in nearly every way - the lack of expandable storage has been fixed and the screen is larger, but the near-stock Android experience has stayed unchanged.This is a utilitarian phone and should withstand quite a bit of rough usage. If you're looking at alternatives, the recently launched Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime is a bit more modern, and only slightly more expensive. The Samsung has a lower screen resolution, but a bigger battery, and there are a few other feature tradeoffs you'll need to see. Between the two, you'll have to choose which features matter more to you, though our pick is the Moto G Gen 2. If on the other hand you'd prefer a Windows Phone device, the Nokia Lumia 730 (Review | Pictures) fits into this budget segment too.

Rs. 15,000 - 20,000This is a tough category, since it's really tempting to step up just a little bit and buy some of the excellent phones that cost just over Rs. 20,000. The most obvious choice is the 16GB version of the Xiaomi Mi 4 (Review | Pictures), with its impressive spec sheet that includes a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, full-HD screen and 3GB of RAM.If availability is a problem, we find that the Huawei Honor 6 (Review | Pictures) is a fairly good alternative. It has a big screen, performs well, and offers pretty much all the features anyone could wish for.The Asus ZenFone 6 (Review | Pictures) is also an alternative worth considering if you want a bigger screen, or if you like Asus' Zen UI Android interface.

Rs. 20,000 - 30,000There can be no doubt about it - the OnePlus One (Review | Pictures) destroys everything in its path when it comes to raw performance and value for money. It's a big, ungainly phone and not everyone will like its looks. It also fared poorly in our battery life tests. However, there really isn't anything quite like it, and if you get an invitation to purchase one, you'll feel like you've won a lottery. The OnePlus One puts up a strong fight against phones that cost much more, which is why it's difficult to recommend anything else under Rs. 30,000.However, if you'd like a more polished device with additional features, you can find the the Motorola Moto X (Gen 2) (Review | Pictures), with its neat gesture and voice command features, as well as the Samsung Galaxy S5 (Review | Pictures) with its fingerprint sensor, heart rate monitor, and TouchWiz software enhancements. If you're looking for a killer camera above all else, you should also consider the Nokia Lumia 830 (Review | Pictures).

Rs. 30,000 - 40,000The HTC Desire Eye stands out primarily because of its 13-megapixel front camera. This is the phone to get if you're selfie-obsessed, and its performance isn't bad either. The Vivo X5Max on the other hand is ultra-slim and caters to those who love to show off. It isn't the fastest phone in this price band, but that's the price you pay for being stylish.Here's where most of the flagships that launched for over Rs. 50,000 less than a year ago currently lie. We like the LG G3 (Review | Pictures) for its superb performance and its QHD 1440x2560-pixel screen, which is the sharpest of the lot.If you can get used to the buttons on the rear, you'll be more than happy with the price and performance you get. Android warriors will be happy to know that the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (Review | Pictures) is now available within this price band. The combination of S-pen stylus and TouchWiz apps let you do all kinds of neat things on the go. For those with dramatically opposite tastes, the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact (Review | Pictures), as its name suggests, will fit nicely in one hand and has tons of power as well as a great camera.

Rs. 40,000 - 50,000You're in luck if you like the stock Android experience provided by the Motorola Google Nexus 6 (Review | Pictures). It's a big phone but has power to spare - and of course, Android 5.0 Lollipop, which is yet to make it to many of the others on our list.Sony's current flagship offering hasn't fallen as far in price as the others have, and so the Xperia Z3 (Review | Pictures) is still priced above Rs. 40,000. However it's still great value for money, considering its fantastic camera, battery life and performance. Plus, it's water- and dust-resistant too.

Another interesting candidate in this price band is the BlackBerry Passport (Review | Pictures). It has an imaginative design and a hybrid keyboard that will keep QWERTY warriors happy. Its construction quality is top-notch and it has a great camera, speedy processor, and excellent battery life. The only real downside is that Android apps aren't guaranteed to run well.

China’s Lenovo Group Ltd , the world’s largest PC maker, had pre-installed a virus-like software on laptops that makes the devices more vulnerable to hacking, cybersecurity experts said on Thursday.

Users reported as early as last June that a programme called Superfish pre-installed by Lenovo on consumer laptops was ‘adware’, or software that automatically displays adverts.

Robert Graham, CEO of U.S.-based security research firm Errata Security, said Superfish was malicious software that hijacks and throws open encrypted connections, paving the way for hackers to also commandeer these connections and eavesdrop, in what is known as a man-in-the-middle attack.

An administrator on Lenovo’s official web forum said on Jan. 23 that Superfish has been temporarily removed from consumer computers. Lenovo executives were not immediately available for comment during the Lunar New Year holiday in China.

Graham and other experts said Lenovo was negligent, and that computers could still be vulnerable even after uninstalling Superfish. The software throws open encryptions by giving itself authority to take over connections and declare them as trusted and secure, even when they are not.

“The way the Superfish functionality appears to work means that they must be intercepting traffic in order to insert the ads,” said Eric Rand, a researcher at Brown Hat Security. “This amounts to a wiretap.”

Concerns about cybersecurity have dogged Chinese firms, including telecoms equipment maker Huawei Technologies Ltd over ties to China’s government and smartphone maker Xiaomi over data privacy.

Lenovo commanded one-fifth of the global PC market in the third quarter of 2014, according to data research firm IDC.